Office equipment, as that which is illustrated in FIG. 1 for example, often have control or configuration panels through which the user thereof operates the equipment along with display screens presenting menu options or other various selections in order to configure the equipment prior to use. The selectable menu options displayed are often presented on a display and are navigable and selectable by the control panel itself or by touch screen display with options navigable and selectable by the user physically touching the surface of the display itself to navigate and select option presented thereon. Such displays often have many levels of hierarchically structured menus because, depending on the complexity of the number and type of selectable options there may not be enough real estate or physical room on the display on which to fit all the various options available. A user of such equipment, in order to select all their desired options to setup or otherwise configure a complex machine to their particular job requirements, will most likely be required to navigate through the plurality of options available by using local controls/keypad or by repeatedly touching the screen display itself.
For instance, assume that a user of a piece of multi-function equipment as illustrated in FIG. 1 desires to have copies made using certain paper other than that is currently available in the default paper tray. Such a user would navigate over the various options available until they reached options for selecting a secondary tray of paper. This may or may not involve navigating through a hierarchy of options in order to reach the various paper tray selections. Once the user has navigated to the desired options they would enter or otherwise formalize their selection by pressing ENTER on the control panel or keypad or by physically touching that selectable option on the display screen itself. After the desired paper tray has been selected the machine will initiate a mechanical switching of the paper trays such that the desired paper type becomes ready for use. After other options have been entered the user will typically select START or PRINT/COPY to begin copying.
Individuals that are impaired may encounter difficulty setting up, configuring or operating such multi-function equipment. If, for example, the user is visually impaired they may not clearly see the options displayed or other helpful information. If the user is completely visually impaired they may not be able to use such multi-function equipment without the assistance of others. If the user has limited motor skills or has difficulty with fine motor control their use of such equipment may be precluded because they may not be able to manipulate the controls or keypad buttons to navigate and select options presented or, if the machine has a touch screen display which requires an accurate physical touching on the surface of the display itself, such impaired users not be able to use such machines without assistance. This problem is highlighted in the case of those users whose physical impairment is so severe that they require the use of a mouth-stick, or puff-stick, or eye-pointer, or some other specialized augmentative communication device to communicate with the world around them. Buttons or keys on control panels are often too small or are not accessible. Touch screen displays are again particularly troublesome because these displays require an accurate physical touching of the display surface. Such displays may not be handicap accessible or the touchable areas comprising the display may be too small. Further, because touch screen displays are intended to be sensitive to the touch, if such an impaired user drags their finger or augmentative pointing device across the display surface they may inadvertently touch (select) unintended options. These kinds of difficulties also highlight the need in the arts for alternate means to make such multifunction equipment more readily accessible to impaired persons.
What is needed in the arts is means for alternative control and navigation and selection of options displayed or otherwise made available on multi-function equipment which provides assistance to visually, physically, or cognitively impaired persons in the configuration, operation, and use of such machines.